The Voice
The poet / reads / aloud / as though / in pain /
as though / each / breath / pulled back / against / the grain /
of language / were / enough / to / tell it slant /
as though / i-TA-lics / compensate / for / cant.
Samantha Pious is a poet, translator, editor, and medievalist with a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature from the University of Pennsylvania. Her translations of Renée Vivien are available as A Crown of Violets (Headmistress Press, 2017); her translation of Christine de Pizan’s One Hundred Ballades of a Lover and His Lady is forthcoming.